The SILive Ferry Forum wants to know which is better: The ferry or the express bus? The consensus right now seems to be that wherever there are fewer people qualifying as obnoxious, disruptive, and/or nutty constitutes the superior mode of transportation.

According to a handful of contributors, commuting via ferry has become offputting because of the large quantities of "craziness," the many loud cell phone users (i.e. "yo, yo, where you at?"), and the presence of "low lifes" such as "alcohol soaked people" and "methadone patients."

One person, posting under the username Count413, even suggested that ferry riders constitute "an entirely different class" of people than those who ride the express bus.

Here's the thing: I'm not a Staten Island native nor am I all that familiar yet with the ferry commute, being new to the Advance family. I'd rather not encourage a debate that questions whether the ferry is full of big losers, though, so much as make a case for the value of public transportation, particularly in cases where annoyances abound.

I was born and raised in Manhattan, where my earliest memories are those I spent riding the subway and buses. Every trip was, and continues to be, an experience: The time I saw an enormous rat scurrying across the tracks, only to be crushed moments later by an approaching train, and the wandering musician who engaged me in a trivia battle as he plucked the beginnings of songs on his guitar and made me guess the titles. And of course, there are the people I want to smack upside the head: The woman who decides her handbag needs its own seat, or the teenager sitting near the front of the bus who listens to his iPod so loud I can hear it all the way in back.

And as for the ferry, just the other day I had my first preacher encounter--this one, in fact--who said at one point during his routine that it was "no coincidence" that we chose to sit on this side of the ferry. Being Jewish, I was uninspired and mildly offended by his talk of Jesus and the like, but I couldn't help thinking: I almost did sit on the opposite deck!

Crazies are everywhere--you can't escape them, and you shouldn't want to. Think about it: don't you just love them, even the tiniest bit? Isn't there something about walking into your office and telling your co-workers all about how you fought the urge for twenty-five minutes to throw someone off the ferry deck? Don't all the outrages amount to your arsenal of anecdotes? And won't you reminisce years later?

These people exist and you can't escape them. That public transportation packs everyone together, from all different walks of life, is part of what makes it so special. I think MrsB2005 says it best: "[I] choose the ferry...I like the relaxing ride...the preachers...the gum snappers...the cell phone talkers..hey, you get all of that (well, except the preachers) on the x-bus too."